Iran changes the world order in Kabaddi by claiming Gold in both Men's and Women's event

The Men's Kabaddi event at the 2018 Asian Games were held in Theatre Garuda, Jakarta from 19 August to 24 August 2018.

There was much expectation from the event which lived up to the same. India, Iran and South Korea were the three teams to watch out for before the start of the tournament. Pakistan has been out of reckoning from the other three nations for a couple of years.

The Iranians came close to defeat India at the 2014 Asian Games. But India survived in a pulsating encounter with the last minute raid fetching points.

Koreans inflicted the first defeat against India in an International kabaddi match at the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup. So were things changing for India. The rest of the nations have started improving on their game.

The Indians put them to rest at the Kabaddi Masters in Dubai with victories over Pakistan, Korea, and Iran.

But there was controversy even before the tournament started. Everyone was questioning the team selection. Big names like Surender Nada and Surjeet Singh missed out from the team and unknown Mallesh Gangadhari and Rajulal Chaudhary were included.

The team was with more raiders and all-rounders and had only two defenders. Defence is what will win you games and that did let us exposed when our raiders were unable to garner points at the Asian Games.

India started off on a positive note defeating Bangladesh 50-21. Bangladesh seems to have lost their mojo which they had during the 90's.

India defeated Srilanka 44-28. Srilanka was no match for the fancied Indians.

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Indian team suffered two defeats and the team selection had its own controversy (Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times)

India lost to South Korea 23-24. India lost to the Koreans for the second time in a close encounter. The Korean raiders were fleet-footed and the Indian defence found it hard to tackle them. This loss meant that India needs to face Iran in the semis.

In their final league match, India defeats Thailand 49-30. This match exposed the chinks in our defence as we were unable to tackle Thailand raiders and they kept on scoring points. The Indians had to pull out all their experience to finally come out victors.

Iran excelled in super tackles (Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times)

In a gruelling Semifinal which was an extremely physical affair, Iran defeated India 18-27 to enter the Finals. India had to settle for a Bronze. The match started off with India racing away to a 6-0 lead. What hampered the Indians was the inability to finish the Iranian team and get them all out to claim the bonus. Instead, the strongly built Iranians raked in 6 super tackle points to level India at half time 9-9 and then going on to win the game comfortably.

Girish who was proficient in tackling early on never had that opportunity again. Mohit Chillar was involved in just one tackle. So was Deepak Niwas Hooda.

All the Indian raiders, Rahul Chaudhari, Rishank Devadiga, Monu Goyat, Pardeep Narwal and Ajay Thakur were all tackled by the Iranian defenders Fazel Atrachali and Abozar Mohajermighani. The tackle was so intense that it left the Indian captain Ajay Thakur bleeding from his face. With him bled all the Indian hearts as for once, India was toppled from the Gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games.

In other important results which caused upsets, Bangladesh came out from dormancy and defeated Thailand 34-22.

Sri Lanka also defeated Thailand 46-29.

Indonesia upset Nepal 33-29 in a Group B encounter.

Indonesia defeated Japan 34-26.

Men's Kabaddi - Iran defeated South Korea 26-16.

Gold Medal - Iran

Silver Medal - South Korea

Bronze Medal - India and Pakistan.

Surprising Team at the Games - Indonesia.

The Women's Kabaddi event at the 2018 Asian Games were held in Theatre Garuda, Jakarta from 19 August to 24 August 2018.

India were strong contenders with their main opposition being from Iran.

Indonesia caused a major upset in Group A when they defeated Japan 30-22. The rest of the results went as expected.

However, in Group B Chinese Taipei caused the upset of the tournament in Women's Kabaddi when they outclassed Iran 22-18.

Chinese Taipei also won against Bangladesh in a convincing manner 43-28.

Chinese Taipei also gave the South Koreans a scare before losing 16-20.

India started off against Japan and comfortably won the game 43-12. The Japanese were no match for the classy Indians.

India defeated Thailand 33-23. The match against Thailand was much more competitive as the pacy Thai team did cause some difficulty to the Indian team.

In their next encounter, India thumped Srilanka 38-12. The neighbouring Lankans could not match the experienced Indian team.

India had a huge victory over Indonesia 54-22. India completely dominated the match in both raiding and tackling.

India proved to be spectators as other teams raked up points (Image Courtesy: Deccan Herald)

In the Semifinals, India was up against a springy Chinese Taipei team who looked a completely different team. They matched the Indians in a close encounter but they lacked the experience to cause any dent to the Indian armour. India won the game against Chinese Taipei 27-14.

The Final, against Iran was a nail-biter. The Iranian rested the title from the Indians and won a humdinger of a match. Iran defeats India 27-24.

Iranian's bundled out the Indian's with tackles (Image Courtesy: IRNA)